Bow Wow Wow – review

The Sex Pistols were not Malcolm McLaren's only situationist prank. After the demise of the Pistols, McLaren managed an early incarnation of Adam & the Ants; he then got rid of Adam Ant and formed Bow Wow Wow by teaming the backing band with 14-year-old Annabella Lwin, whom he famously overheard singing in a London launderette.

Bow Wow Wow's notoriety far outweighed their commercial success. Ever the provocateur, McLaren talked Lwin into appearing nude on the sleeve of the band's debut album – the cover was promptly banned – and tilted at the taboo of underage sex by penning disturbingly pervy lyrics for the pubescent singer to chant.

Yet the band became more than mere McLaren marionettes when they hit on a unique musical formula, all frantic Burundi beats and vivacious, insatiable guitar patterns. Reunited 30 years on, only Lwin and bassist Leigh Gorman remain of the first lineup – original guitarist Matthew Ashman died in 1995 of a diabetes-related ailment – but flashes remain of what made Bow Wow Wow such a brilliant proposition.

Even in middle age, Lwin remains a keen-to-please ingenue, dedicating the Lolita-sex romp Louis Quatorze to the late McLaren with an aghast sigh: "I was only 14!" She apologises frequently for the disparity between her appearance and the songs' paedophilic fixations: tonight, her faux-orgasmic panting on the innuendo-laden Sexy Eiffel Tower simply makes her sound out of breath.

They close with the polyrhythmic delirium of their two biggest hits, Go Wild in the Country and I Want Candy, Lwin blesses the audience, and Bow Wow Wow exit leaving you nostalgic for the days when such a debauched, fascinatingly skew-whiff band could so freely penetrate the mainstream. As it were.